


twelve and a half

by lullabyforstrings



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Kid!Fic, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:14:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,351
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29292720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lullabyforstrings/pseuds/lullabyforstrings
Summary: “Are you dating TK?” she repeats with a bit more hesitation.Carlos feels his face flush. “Lorena, you’re twelve.”“I’m not blind," Lorena mumbles through her burger. "And I'm twelve and a half."“I didn’t say you were,” Carlos says as he crumples up his burger’s wrapper. “I said you were twelve.”“Thirteen next month.”Carlos groans. “Don’t remind me.”[Or Carlos tries to raise his 7th grader while having a crush on the 126's new captain's son]
Relationships: Carlos Reyes & TK Strand
Comments: 5
Kudos: 40





	twelve and a half

**Author's Note:**

> Hi there! For some context, Carlos had Lorena when he was 16 so she is 12 in this story (Carlos is 28). She primarily lived with Carlos’ mother/grandmother while Carlos was in college and then in the police academy. He would visit her from time to time but didn’t have time to raise a child so his mom/grandma picked up most of the slack. 
> 
> Thank you so much to Trick who has listened to me scream about this fic for months and edited on short notice!

“Have you talked with your neighbor about the school district yet?” His mom asks. Carlos watches her set the spoon down on the wooden cutting board. 

“Not yet,” Carlos says as he shoves a bite of rice in his mouth. His neighbor is all of 5’2 feet tall, but she has a cheating husband, three hours of sleep and kids that are so well behaved she intimidates him. 

“They have deadlines for registration.”

“I know, Mama. I just…”

“If she’s going to live with you then junior high is the best time to do it,” his mom says and suddenly he feels like he’s sixteen years old again. He feels like he’s being scolded but doesn’t know why.

“She can always move back if it’s too much,” his mom says as she sits down at the table.

That’s what I’m afraid of, Carlos thinks. 

Carlos looks down at his hands. “I’ll talk to my neighbor tomorrow. Call the school after she gives me the name of the assistant principal.”

//

When Owen walks down to the kitchen that evening, he is tempted to run to check if hallucinations are side effects of his treatment.

“Hey, Judd.”

“Yeah?” Judd mumbles as he opens the fridge.

“Have I lost it or is there a middle schooler in Michelle’s office?” Owen asks.

“Oh, that’s Carlos Reyes’ daughter,” Judd says as he rummages through the fridge. “Dairy free yogurt? How the hell do they make that? Reyes was the officer you met last night. He’s friends with Michelle so she watches her from time to time when she’s not living with his parents.”

//

“Headache or is your homework that bad?” Owen asks as Lorena’s head bolts up from where it’s buried on her textbook.

“Oh, um, I’m okay. Just tired,” Lorena says as she rubs a hand across her face.

“You’re Officer Reyes’ daughter?” 

Lorena nods but doesn’t hide the worried look on her face. “Sorry. I, uh...Michelle said I could stay in her office while my dad finished up work?”

Owen smiles. “It’s fine, kid. No need to explain. My ex-wife would always work late so she’d sometimes drop my son--TK over there--off at the fire station while she finished up.”

Lorena peers over at the upstairs gym that Owen gestures to. She thought the captain looked familiar. That must have been his son she noticed in the gym earlier. 

“Sorry, he just got this new boss and he couldn’t get off on time so Michelle--”

“Didn’t I just say there’s no need to apologize?” Owen watches as she tucks her hands into her hoodie’s sleeves. “Anything I can help with?”

Lorena sighs as she pulls out one of her mechanical pencils. “It’s just math.”

“I wish math was as easy as “it’s just math,” Owen says as he sits down next to her. There’s a creak in his knees that he wishes he could ignore. “Let me see what you’re working on.”

//

“Hey. Sorry I’m late,” Carlos says to Lorena as he takes her backpack.

“It’s fine,” she mumbles as she sinks down into the car.

Definitely not fine, Carlos thinks.

When Lorena was little and threw a tantrum in the grocery store more than he could count, before anything had gone wrong, Carlos had found the long silences he could share with his daughter comforting. They hadn’t needed to say anything, it was enough to spend the time in the same space together and to know neither of them felt like they had to fill it. The long silences now just make him anxious as he wonders what the hell he’s doing here with a daughter. He doesn't know how to fit into her life when she won't stop growing.

“You get your homework done?” He asks, hopefully sounding less helpless than he feels.

“Mhm.” Lorena nods as she fiddles with the straps of her backpack.

Carlos sighs as he looks back at the firehouse. He doesn’t recognize the cars in the parking lot. Michelle’s is there but there’s a car with a New York plate--shit. 

“Hey, I’ll be back in a minute, okay? I need to pick something up in Michelle’s office,” Carlos says as he tries to hide the look of worry on his face.

He passes by Judd who looks better, but somehow worse than he saw him last month. He recognizes a few others by face but not by name.

“Captain Strand?” He asks as he rounds the corner to the new member of the 126’s office. 

Owen looks up. “Oh, sorry. Didn’t see you walk in.”

Carlos notices that Owen looks both younger and older than he is. He watches as the captain places his pen down on the side of his notebook. His office looks more put together than Carlos’ life, which doesn’t bode well for how Carlos feels this conversation is going to go.

“Mind if I come in?” Carlos asks, feeling like a teenager again. 

“Sure,” Owen says as he looks up from his laptop. “Your daughter was hanging out with Michelle last time I saw her if you’re looking for her.”

“I got her already, but I just wanted to stop by and thank you for letting her stay. I’m sorry if she bothered--”

Owen waves him off. “Oh, it’s not a problem.”

“Seriously,” Carlos says as he buries his hands in his pockets. “I know you must be buried in paperwork right now.”

I didn’t know you were on shift tonight, Owen figures Carlos wants to say.

“It’s no problem,” Owen says with a shrug. “I’m a dad, too. I don’t mind if Michelle watches her.”

//

The next time Carlos meets Owen, it’s in a bar. Owen nods at him as he talks to Michelle from across the bar. It’s a friendly nod--thankfully not a judgemental one.

“Good work out there the other day,” Carlos says to TK as he sits down on the barstool. He catches a glimpse of Owen leading Michelle out to linedance. “So is your dad drunk right now or is that just what’s he’s like naturally?”

TK smirks. “That’s just his personality.” 

Carlos eyes TK’s glass of water before changing the subject. “You and your dad are from New York?”

TK smirks. “That obvious?”

“Might be.”

“I think I met your daughter the other day. She was in Michelle’s office?” TK asks as he looks over at the bartender.

“Oh, right,” Carlos says as he looks down at his hands. “Your dad wasn’t too pissed about that, right?”

“He didn’t say anything. I mean, I used to sleep under his desk when I was little so I doubt he’d be that mad,” TK says as he crosses his arms. 

He watches Carlos smile at the image of a little TK curled up under his dad’s desk. The memory would be happier if it wasn’t in the wake of 9/11 and TK couldn’t shake the feeling of terror about losing his father.

“So where does her mom work?” TK asks.

“It’s just her and me,” Carlos says a little too quickly. “Well, my parents take care of her mostly. They live about two hours north of here. Schools are better out there and my schedule is hell so she doesn’t live with me fulltime.”

“I shuffled back and forth from my mom and dad’s when I was her age,” TK says as he takes a sip of his water. “My mom worked in big law so she was pulling 80 hours a week. Probably more than my dad was but my mom had more control of her day-to-day than my dad did.”

Carlos nods as he picks at the label on his beer. “Has been that way since I had her in high school and went off to UT."

“Her mom couldn’t…”

“She’s not in the picture. Gave up custody when Lorena was born.”

TK feels his face turn red. “Fuck, I’m sorry.”

“We were never together,” Carlos says as he bites down on his lip. “Made the having-a-baby-in-high-school story even more cliche because I realized I was gay not soon after.”

“Oh.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!


End file.
